The popular Las Vegas Strip on the night of 31 from December. Photo: Ángel Matute / Impremedia
I had been locked up in Los Angeles for several months under quarantine orders when I decided that I was going to visit some other tourist city to compare how the pandemic was being experienced in other latitudes of the United States and what were the restrictions in force.
I made the first trip in October 2020 to New York City . The low demand for flights and accommodation had the rates of both for the floor, so the idea of taking advantage of the opportunity outweighed the fear of the virus, so I embarked on a four-day journey.
The first difference I noticed was that both tourist attractions and the restaurant and bar industry were operating almost normally . There were some restrictions such as a limit of diners per table, or having to consume food if alcohol was consumed, but the atmosphere felt quite permissive compared to Los Angeles, which at the moment did not allow to seat diners inside the restaurants.
The vast majority of tourist attractions in the city of New York were operating. Bus and cruise tours, bike rides, museums, skyscraper viewpoints , among others, were active but with less capacity, and tourists were there to take advantage of them, something that has not been seen in Southern California in almost a year.
And although New York City had a few very dark weeks due to the coronavirus, those days are behind us and its policies have managed to maintain the pandemic under control, which has not happened on the west coast despite its severe restrictions.
After returning from that trip, the golden state began to relax its measures a little, allowing some tourist activities such as the rental of hotel rooms , as well as diners in restaurants, but an abrupt increase in cases since November brought the bans back and the end of the year was characterized by or a curfew with indefinite restrictions , so I decided to make my second trip and spend the end of the year in Las Vegas.
After the first crossing and with the return of the prohibitions, I wanted to verify if the fear was the same in Sin City, which is just over 250 miles away by car, and if the low prices of the rooms in New Years had something to do with it, but no, the truth there was no fear in Vegas and it really seemed that there was no virus.
The streets of the Strip were packed with people. Elevators, card tables, slot machines and restaurants were crowded , many of the most popular were without tables available for several days.
In addition, the recommendations to limit to 4 Elevator passengers were totally ignored due to the long waiting lines to get up and down from the rooms. While waiting, many claimed that it was illogical to limit the use of the elevator to 4 people, when when leaving it there were thousands under the same roof of the casino using the machines or occupying the chairs of the tables one after the other without any cleaning or disinfection of by medium.
For its part, the great year-end attraction, the countdown and fireworks display on the Strip did not take place, but police closed vehicular access to allow visitors, who numbered in the thousands, to safely congregate outdoors .
After midnight, the hotels imposed a restriction that was only in effect that night: to enter the casino they had to be guests. But on January 1, everything had returned to normal and the city’s bars were selling their popular cocktails in huge glasses very early.
The only thing that Las Vegas lacked to be completely normal were nightclubs and the popular musical, magic or acrobatics shows , but in its streets its popular models they walked with little clothes and without a mask offering photos to thousands of tourists.
The return was characterized by thousands of cars speeding back to the south of the golden state, where authorities require any traveler to remain in quarantine for 10 days, however, there is no one to monitor that this is fulfilled and it remains voluntarily in each individual.
Despite the moral regret she faces after traveling for pleasure in a pandemic, I currently have five days in isolation and have not developed any symptoms.
READ MORE
LA approves an ordinance to require payment of an extra $ 5 an hour to employees of supermarkets and pharmacies
Biden promises $ 2 stimulus checks, 000 if Democrats win Georgia Senate elections